La Historia de Dubai | UAE #6

Well it's a new day and the truth is nothing is going well because I'm lost in the desert There are hundreds of kilometers to the nearest city I don't know what to do Well it's a new day we're already on Sunday it's the third day we've been here in Dubai And as you can see I'm alone today because Cristian is sick in bed I don't know if it's because he ate something bad or what but he's quite ill So he's been resting to see if he can feel better by the afternoon so we'll see So I'm going to take a walk by myself this morning around the area And nothing just remove little things we have lying around here in Dubai which isn't much I mean things that are somewhat visitable Here I wanted to show you how the metro stations are they are quite interesting Well inside you've already seen it but the entrance to the subway is like this It's quite futuristic it seems I don't know if the metro stations in Bilbao look more or less like that but on a much smaller scale The truth is that they are quite nice and that's how all of them are in the city no matter where they are located So nothing else another one of the curiosities around here Let's take a walk see if I go to a couple of souks and the Dubai Museum At the Dubai Museum which seems to have better luck with entry it is open today Well we're already inside the museum and the first part shown here like an inner courtyard It is part of what it was before which was basically a fortress Then it's full like for example here we have a cannon with all the balls whatever they're called Here we have little boats that they used in the river next to us which is the one I just crossed in the taxi Then there were also the typical little huts where they lived back then Those were the little huts where they lived Well basically Dubai became known thanks to Then it also became very well known in the 19th century because the city removed import and export taxes Thus it was mainly used for marketing all kinds of materials and there the markets were also created Well because in this area there are many markets both for gold pearls food spices there's everything And they became very well known back then because there were no taxes so everyone came here to trade And from there it began to grow into a fairly important city It's not that there's a lot of rain or places where they can find water Then they mainly relied on wells they found in the area and which supplied water to the entire population But now the population is so large that what they do is desalinate seawater Basically there are thermal power plants and aluminum smelters that use the heat generated by the factories for desalination To evaporate the seawater add chlorine and limestone which I'm not exactly sure what it is it's another material To be able to remove all impurities that the water may have and make it drinkable and potable That's why when you drink it from the tap it has a strange taste and a little bit of brown comes out but it's completely safe to drink and poses no risk It's better to drink bottled water even if it's been a long time but for just a few days because we've noticed it at the hotel or even with bottled water It has a certain taste that the water shouldn't have but it's basically because of the chlorine they add and that slight taste also comes from the treatment they give it but it remains drinkable The museum is really cool because it's very well set up even the floor is made of sand and all the periods of Dubai's history are recreated Practically from the early 20th century with characters and situations set in that era you really feel as if you're in the early years of Dubai And it continues through history up to the present day which we have not yet reached but well we will get there we are still quite early they are with the Bedouins Well I've already left the Dubai museum it's quite good worth less than a euro at the exchange rate it's very cheap it's worth visiting I just felt it was a bit short because it's the history of Dubai But basically the early years of the city are very well recreated and are well worth it it's very well documented but it goes up to the 1940s around 1940 I have lacked a bit of the evolution that the artificial city I am but anyway to sum up basically in the 1960s oil was discovered here in Dubai which had been a fishing village until then becoming a city of gold pearl and all trade and then when gold was found oil sorry Well that's how Dubai started becoming what it is today with a huge amount of investment trying to be basically the capital of the world Then they found a lot of oil especially in Abu Dhabi which is the city we are going tomorrow and also in Dubai but in smaller amounts Yet there was a huge amount so they made some sort of agreement a partnership between the two cities to become very important cities on the world stage During the following decades a brutal pace was set not so much until the 1990s as from the 2000s when the construction of what is visible today began They are the tallest skyscrapers and they tried to create a tourist model based on breaking world records For example having the world's tallest building the only 7-star hotel in the world the world's largest aquarium meaning it's all records and more records and even more records But basically what they want is oil is running out so they know there will be a point when they run out of oil no one knows exactly how much time perhaps a few decades And so they need a business model for this city to be prosperous without oil they also have gas but it's not the same it doesn't bring in as much money as oil Then what they want to do is build a very awesome city in terms of activities and possibilities for tourists Then it ranges from having all the world records to attract tourism such as having theme parks like the aquapark we saw yesterday or creating a huge zoo with almost realistic dinosaurs Then there are also these palm trees that have been built like 3 then the part of the private islands world well the ideas are countless the question is whether it will work for them Because the investment is extremely important meaning billions and billions that are being spent here seem to be spent in some way without any sense And there are some things I don't know I really like the city it's not a city where I would live I like it a lot to visit but for now I find it too artificial I don't know it's not the city vibe I like there are probably a lot of people who love this kind of thing I'm just not really into it but the truth is it's really cool and very interesting The social impact is also significant because it is a completely different culture after all this is an Islamic country but for example the citizens of Dubai are very few So there are very few in Dubai and they are the ones who have money basically meaning they are basically shopping in the malls Because citizenship here generally consists of immigrants from Pakistan from countries in East Asia such as China meaning it's practically full of workers They are the ones who built this city the Burj Khalifa all the hotels all the skyscrapers they were basically built by Pakistanis Because they are very cheap labor they attracted them by the thousands because they were paid very little they work 16 hours a day and then they go live in the suburbs Living as if in the countryside they look a lot like at night they look like small white buses that pick them all up and take them to the outskirts and then outside they live in houses that can accommodate 7 8 or 10 people on the same floor which would normally be for one or two people they all live in bunks and tightly packed Then it's a bit of the business model that's followed here it's a city basically built on a plan and thinking about how to generate profits from it Then it's another kind of thinking not so much the Muslim culture but like the culture of capitalism here which already crosses all the boundaries of all religions and cultures But anyway I'll finish this section for now if I come up with more things I'll tell you about them but I'll try to dilute them a bit so that I don't end up with a one and a half hour speech here I'm not the one who knows the most about this I just have some information from guides so if you don't trust my word either inform yourselves if you're coming and contradict me if I'm wrong Well I'll also take this opportunity while I'm here in the old town to tell you or answer a few questions that you often ask me on my trips so I'll answer them now Do you need to know a special language in Dubai No as long as you know enough English practically everyone here speaks English all the signs all the notifications everything is in English In addition to their native language but later in some it's Arabic in others it's Indian but here there are people from so many countries not just because of tourism but because they live here so each one has their own language Then English is used for everything here everyone knows English to a greater or lesser degree but everyone speaks at least basic English so you can make yourself understood Then the economic part is Dubai an expensive or cheap country It depends on how you want to do it it's known as a very expensive city and it is an expensive city if you want it to be For example what we spent on the flight and the hotel is basically the most expensive part once you've paid for the flight and the hotel you can even not spend a single penny here Because really the food if you come to this old area you can eat until you're full for less than 3 euros so the food in this area is very very cheap if you go to the central area That's where the tall buildings hotels and such are obviously there a basic hamburger costs 14 euros like you said the wrap I ate yesterday which wasn't anything special And that plus a Coca-Cola was 15 euros so it does get expensive if you want to eat a bit more luxuriously here the food isn't bad but you take the risk of where you are It's all food from Pakistan India Lebanon and Nepal and it doesn't mean it's bad but it might not be very good for your stomach if you're not used to it They use a lot of spice they have cooking methods that if you're not used to them and don't have a fairly strong stomach it can affect you so these things need to be taken into account Cristian is now in bed I don't know if it's because of something like that but we haven't eaten anything very strange either so I'm not sure but that also needs to be considered Then it's also expensive it depends on the activities you want to do were at the aquapark yesterday then in the afternoon we have this tour through the desert Let's see how Christian is so we can do it and a few other things but that's what we've spent the money on then you can do whatever you want if you want in the mall there's an aquarium If you want to go inside you have to pay here you can do everything by paying but without paying you can also see many things so it's expensive or cheap but excluding the flight and the hotel From there whatever you want to establish as expensive or cheap because you will decide what you want to spend or not so you can do many things without spending a single euro But then again that depends on each person but that's really the case in all countries around the world